Biography 
Having discovered comic books in 1985 at the age of 15, Joe Martin recalls that his first purchase of a comic book was Marvel's Secret Wars #1, because he thought Captain America looked cool on the cover. He began to frequent Comic Book World in Florence, KY. Store owner Paul Mullins was enthused by the stuff that Martin was showing him and introduced him to local designer, Bob Hickey, who had self-published a couple of titles. Joe Martin came into comics in 1989 as a penciler for an independent company called Cornerstone, a company owned by Hickey and his brother, Mike. 

Also in 1989, Mullins introduced Martin to another local creator, David Mack. Together the two of them collaborated on a project that they called Thrillseeker (Mack penciled and inked, Martin dialogued and lettered), that has never seen publication. They also collaborated on a short story for Oh! Comics that Martin penciled and Mack inked. Martin remembers the first consultation between he and Mack that was practically the birthing of Mack's now-popular creation, Kabuki. They still chuckle when they talk about such things. 

Martin then went on to co-create the now-familiar Blue Line Comic Book Pages and co-found Sky Comics with Bob and Michael Hickey. He quit his job as a waiter and became a penciler, writer and editor for the company on titles such as Sky Comics Presents, Blood and Roses, Tempered Steele, Vapor Loch and his own creation, Seeker. He did this from roughly 1990 until 1995. During that time, he also served as editorial director on 17 issues of Arena Magazine, a b/w periodical featuring news, commentary, interviews and reviews about and pertaining to the comic book, gaming and entertainment industry. He personally interviewed such notables as John Byrne, Jim Shooter, Frank Miller, Dave Dorman, Erik Larsen, Marc Silvestri, Keith Giffen, George Perez, Jim Valentino, Mike Allred, Jerry Ordway, Al Gordon and more. He was also slighted twice by Rob Liefeld. He thinks that the coming out of Hero Magazine had something to do with the ebb of Arena. 

During negotiations with Caliber Comics in 1994-95 regarding the Sky title StormQuest being published through an imprint venue, he was hired on to Caliber as associate director of the new gaming division in early 1995. The premiere release, based on a creation by Martin and Bob Hickey, was PowerCardz - a collectible super-hero combat card game. Its initial release did well and they were granted license by Todd McFarlane to do the Spawn PowerCardz collectible card game, which captured the number three position in market share beating such games of the same release date as Jim Lee's Wildstorm and Marvel's Overpower. 

Also in 1995 Martin began writing the fantasy title LegendLore for Caliber, and has written and had released over 14 issues of the successful fantasy series to this date. He has also written the full-color Daemonstorm (featuring a cover by Todd McFarlane), Daemonstorm: Stormwalker, and "Monster Truck" for Negative Burn #46, lettered on titles such as David Mack's Kabuki and David Boller's Kaos Moon, edited titles for Caliber such as Tattoo, Patty-Cake, Robyn of Sherwood, Black Mist (many more) and he also plans to edit Joe Pruett's Avalon for Sirius (if Joe will let him...he doesn't really want money, just fame), and has penciled Flare #9 and League of Champions #5 for Heroic Publishing back around 1993 (although he is not particularly proud of the inking in these issues). He is also overseeing the return of the title he created back in '92, Seeker, with a whole new twist as written by Caliber publisher Gary Reed and co-edited by Joe Pruett. 

Now at the age of 28, his hair bespeckled with premature gray and his eyes failing, Martin is currently endeavoring to write a fantasy novel based on Arthurian and Celtic mythos and, as well, he is culminating a couple of more comic book ideas. He loves reading, dogs, his family, ice cream and playing softball and tennis. He hates people who try to beat him up, the standard Hollywood formula that keeps churning out bad movie after bad movie like Speed 2, Independence Day and this year's "blockbuster" Godzilla....oh yeah, and guilt. 

Martin's favorite creators (and other stuff he thinks about people in the comic industry): there will always be a special spot in Martin's tummy-place for the works of Mike Mignola. Martin thinks this guy is tops. Also, George Pérez, P. Craig Russell, Brian Bolland, Charles Vess, Frank Frazetta, Angus McBride, Phil Jimenez, Brom, Marc Silvestri, Larry Elmore, Galen Showman, Dave Johnson, and Barry Windsor Smith's older works. More recently, he has come to appreciate the inking work of Joe Weems, and wants to say that he has formally eaten crow for telling Billy Tan that he had the wrong attitude to make it in comics...because he did, and without any help from Joe Martin. 
 
Joe Martin's Credits List
  Credits (not including lettering & editing): 

• Drifters, The #1 (pencils, 1989) 
• Blue Line Comic Book Pages (1990) 
• Sky Comics Presents #1, #2 (pencils, 1991) 
• Seeker: Vengeance #1, #2 (1992) 
• Blood & Roses: The Time Shard (1992) 
• Seeker, The #1 (1993) 
• Flare #9 (pencils, 1993) 
• League of Champions #5 (pencils, 1993) 
• Stormquest #3, #4, #6 (1994-95) 
• PowerCardz (1995) 
• LegendLore #1-#8 (1995-97) 
• Spawn PowerCardz (1996) 
• Daemonstorm (1997) 
• LegendLore: Daemonstorm (1997) 
• Negative Burn #46 (1997) 
• Daemonstorm: Stormwalker (1997) 
• LegendLore: The Realm Wars #1-#4 (1997)
• LegendLore: Wrath of the Dragon #1-#5 (1997-98)
• Pendragon Chronicles: Excalibur (1998)